Tiger Cries Salad
Description A spicy Thai beef salad. A fabulous summer meal, marinade the meat and make the dressing the night before then throw dinner together FAST. Excellent for casual dinner parties and dieters. I've had this mouth-watering salad at a couple of different Thai restaurants, I was unable to find a recipe so I combined several to make my own. This salad is very spicy yet the bursts of freshness from the lime and mint make it a celebration for the taste buds. It's extremely addictive and very healthy, no oil! Ingredients Marinade * 1 lb beef flank steak or beef sirloin steak or tenderloin beef (good quality) * 2 teaspoons white pepper * 2 tablespoons fish sauce * 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice * 2 tablespoons palm sugar * 8 cloves garlic, minced Dressing * 2 tablespoons sugar * ½ cup fresh lime juice * 3 – 4 tablespoons fish sauce (to taste) * 4 – 6 shallots, minced * 4 – 6 serrano peppers, chilis very finely minced or ground to paste * 2 stalks lemongrass, remove outer stalk and slice very thin or grind * 3 tablespoons toasted rice powder (ground fine) Salad * 1 lb fresh tender salad greens (i use the bagged spring mix) or bibb lettuce * 1 large red onion, thinly slivered * 1 bunch scallions or green onions, cut to ½ inch * 1 cucumber, peeled and seeded cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced * cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes or wedges tomatoes * 1 lemon, cut in half lengthwise and very thinly sliced (toss into salad for garnish/flavor) * 1 cup fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped * sticky rice Directions Prepare a batch of Thai sticky rice (aka Thai sweet rice) to serve with this salad. Note: if you're in a hurry or on a budget, you can leave out the scallions, cuke, tomatoes and lemon and this salad will retain its signature flavor. Marinade # Mix ingredients in a ziploc and let meat marinade from 2 – 24 hours in liquid. # char grill or broil meat to medium rare, about 3 – 4 minutes per side. # Let rest at least 10 minutes then slice very thin (¼" or less) against the grain. # Use very good quality meat for this dish, you want it to be fork-tender and melt-in-your-mouth!. Dressing # Mix all dressing ingredients together 1+ hours before serving salad. # Be sure to taste and make any necessary adjustments… dressing should be spicy, sour, salty and a just a wee bit sweet in that order) you may want to make extra dressing to spoon over the sticky rice. Salad # Pour half of dressing over the red onions, lemon and cuke in a large salad bowl and let them absorb the flavor, 15+ minutes. # Add lettuce, tomatoes, scallions and mint along with the rest of the dressing. # Toss the salad until all ingredients are very well coated and mixed. # Dish salad onto plates and top with slices of cooked beef, make sure plenty of dressing is included in each serving. # Add a serving of sticky rice to each plate. # Serving suggestion very pretty to serve this salad on a bed of purple cabbage leaves. # Perfect sticky rice soak 1-2 pounds of Thai sweet rice in lukewarm water in a large bowl for 3 hours- drain and reserve water to use in steaming. # Line bottom of bamboo steamer (the stackable sort used for veggies and such) with parchment paper (or cheesecloth sprayed with PAM). # Fill steamer with soaked rice and cover. # Pour rice soaking water into wok or dutch oven, add some fresh water until approx 3" depth. # Place steamer over water in pan, bring water to boil then reduce to strong simmer - don't let water cook away. # Steam rice for approx 25 minutes, let sit an additional 5 minutes with lid on. # To make toasted rice powder toast raw sweet rice in a sauté pan on top of stove just as you would sesame seeds - until very light golden brown. # Use a coffee grinder, blender or food processor to grind to a fine consistency - i like mine fine as white sugar but any texture from couscous, cornmeal, flour, etc is just fine. # Adds an interesting, nutty and essential flavor to the dressing. Category:Beef round Recipes Category:Beef sirloin Recipes Category:Bibb lettuce Recipes Category:Cabbage Recipes Category:Char Recipes Category:Cherry tomato Recipes Category:Cucumber Recipes Category:Dinner Recipes Category:Grape tomato Recipes Category:Lemongrass Recipes